Slouching with his pot belly aimed at the camera and repeatedly scratching his ratty beard, he can't be serious about running. Why would Walker opponents want to set up a race that will give Walker a big platform for promoting himself unless the other guy (or gal) has a great fighting chance?

In the interview, Obey cites the names Tom Barrett and Herb Kohl. Barrett is the Milwaukee mayor who already lost to Walker (back in 2010). And Kohl is 76 and retiring from his not-too-onerous seat in the U.S. Senate. Assuming he'd run against Walker, how good a fight would Kohl put up against the 43-year-old governor who will be battling for everything he's worked for and defending himself after year's worth of over-the-top assaults on his integrity?

By the way, Obey is quoted — at the link — saying that the new Wisconsin law requiring that voters show an ID card "is not only a recallable issue; it ought to be an impeachable issue." You'd impeach elected officials for passing legislation? Ridiculous. Of course, if you had the votes in the legislature to impeach, you'd have the votes to repeal the legislation, so Obey is simply spluttering from his out-of-office dream world.

ADDED: Let me take Obey's nutty idea about impeachment and run with it. If we get a new governor through the recall of Scott Walker, the ouster of the governor ought to be seen as an impeachable offense. Let the Republican legislature impeach the new Governor Obey/Kohl/Barrett/Feingold. Why not? The Democrats have set the theme: Use anything and everything you can get your hands on to defeat your opponent. As one possible future governor likes to say: "This game's not over until we win."

82 comments:

I'm surprised that they've pushed this recall so hard without a viable candidate already in mind. This is just a huge windfall for Walker, if they run some loser against him. They would have been much better off with no recall attempt at all.

As a libertarian who has a real spite for anything resembling a "papers please" police state, even I can't see any reason whatsoever to oppose requiring an ID to vote. Not just "pros and cons". I can't see any reason at all.

I have to sign a document in order to vote. It's not a secret that I voted.

I can't help thinking that those who oppose requiring an ID for someone to cast a vote in the name of a person on the ID has some completely different, and ulterior, agenda.

Good God NO, to all three of them. Too bad Tammy Baldwin is running for Senate and Feingold declined. Can you imagine if Lena Taylor ran? She would get most of Madison and Milwaukee. If she energized black voters in Milwaukee in huge numbers, lookout Walker.

If the person running against Walker was a new up-and-coming Democrat with fresh ideas, well, I'd be more enthusiastic. I am not interested in returning to 2008 in WI. (There's a reason the state motto is 'Forward'). All of the suggested candidates make me think of a return to the Past. Pass.

I think there are things that make Walker vulnerable: Policies that have demonstrably cost the State money and not following through on campaign promises, for example. And there are plenty of very odd pieces of legislation being floated during this 'jobs' special session (My favorite: Joel (is that his first name?) Kleefisch wanting to make Pre-Nup agreements ironclad, even if they were entered into fraudulently). If a democratic Gubernatorial candidate can tie Walker to weird loose cannons on the Republican side of the aisle (while maintaining a distance from equally weird democratic cannons), he or she is more likely to be successful.

The only impeachment going on today is Ms. Althouse's skewering of Mr. Obey.I'm thinking his very name would preclude him from running or winning elected office. If he indeed did win office then the rabble would be in position of having to Obey.

Didn't Walker win his seat as County Executive through a special election? Why Yes he did!. He won his first seat in the Assembly in a special election as well, and if I'm not mistaken, the Governorship is the first office he's won in a normal election.

It would be amusing to see campaign platform that included removing the voter ID requirement. How do you sell that in Oshkosh? "Well, it used to be the law..."

Agreed, I think if a candidate ran on that platform, they’d lose pretty handily as (a) most people already have the required form of ID (e.g. a driver’s license) so it’s not a burden to produce it and (b) the ones who don’t and are unwilling to make the minimal effort to obtain it are likely already not voting and (c) it’s such a minimal “burden” that most people are going to either be surprised it wasn’t already required and/or suspicious of anyone who tries to vote who can’t show that they are who they claim to be.

"garage mahal said...Didn't Walker win his seat as County Executive through a special election? Why Yes he did!. He won his first seat in the Assembly in a special election as well, and if I'm not mistaken, the Governorship is the first office he's won in a normal election. "

Walker one a special election that came up because the previous County Executive Tom Ament resigned over a pension scandal.

"Mitochondri-Allie said...Good God NO, to all three of them. Too bad Tammy Baldwin is running for Senate and Feingold declined. Can you imagine if Lena Taylor ran? She would get most of Madison and Milwaukee. If she energized black voters in Milwaukee in huge numbers, lookout Walker.

garage mahal said...Didn't Walker win his seat as County Executive through a special election? Why Yes he did!. He won his first seat in the Assembly in a special election as well, and if I'm not mistaken, the Governorship is the first office he's won in a normal election.

If Lena Taylor ran and won (hahahaha!), would she run away and hide in Illinois if the legislature passed a law she didn't like? Would she request absentee ballots so she could vote from her fortress of idiocy in Illinois? Would she scream "don't you know who I am?!?!" at anyone who dared to question her?

The really sad things are that there are a lot of idiots in her district who keep voting for her, and a lot of idiots and deranged people in Dane County who would vote for her too...

Wisconsin lost 12,400 jobs in September, unemployment rose from 7.3% to 7.9% under their watch, and the WIGOP are debating fertilizer, abstinence only sex ed, and deer, in their 'Back to Work Agenda' special session. These idiots just can't help themselves.

Lena Taylor and the rest of the Senators did the right thing, this act made them heroes in the eyes of many Wisconsinites. I guess we will have to wait and see who ends up running , we are in for a wild ride. Maybe Walker can go to Cali and visit his sugar daddy Koch after he loses.

Tosa Guy, Walker said he actually thought about planting trouble makers in the protests when he was having his phone call with "Koch". Don't think for a minute that that phone call won't come up over and over.

>>Good God NO, to all three of them. Too bad Tammy Baldwin is running for Senate and Feingold declined. Can you imagine if Lena Taylor ran? She would get most of Madison and Milwaukee. If she energized black voters in Milwaukee in huge numbers, lookout Walker. <<

Lena Taylor ran for Milwaukee County Executive against Scott Walker in 2008. How did she do?

Don't forget Pre-Nup laws! Those are important for a Jobs Special Session too!

Don't forget repealing the Equal Pay Enforcement Act. The reason is they don't want frivilous lawsuits clogging the state circuit court system. How many cases are currently clogging our courts? Zero! How many have been taken to circuit courts in two yrs since enactment? None!

Impeach him? Did he write the legislation, or did he sign it? If he wrote it, impeach him, if he signed it, you have bigger problems than just him and would have to impeach everyone in the houses who voted for it.

" Mitochondri-Allie said...Tosa Guy, Walker said he actually thought about planting trouble makers in the protests when he was having his phone call with "Koch". Don't think for a minute that that phone call won't come up over and over."

That's 100% bullshit. He indicated it was brought up, but he wasn't for it.

James, she was running for County exec as I said earlier,times have changed and Wisconsinites KNOW now what Walker is. PLUS, Taylor could bring black voters in Milwaukee out in droves, she is a well known person now.

>>James, she was running for County exec as I said earlier,times have changed and Wisconsinites KNOW now what Walker is. PLUS, Taylor could bring black voters in Milwaukee out in droves, she is a well known person now.<<

Are you delusional? Lena Taylor couldn't win County Executive in a county where her "base" is the largest group and you think she can win a state-wide race?

Dems really want to die on this hill don't they? Funny how they can't seem to find a leader that wants to join them.

Reminds me of the opening scene in "Stalingrad" where the Russian officers yelled from behind to the advancing horde of conscripts being sent to their deaths (only every other man had a rifle), "When the man in front of you falls, pick up his rifle...."